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Many years ago I saw "Never on Sunday" starring Melina Mercouri, and suddenly while contemplating maybe writing a blog entry on the classical Japanese themes of mountains and seashore (I think it's called Sansui, san meaning mountain, as in Fuji San, Mount Fuji, and sui, the Chinese derived pronunciation of the word for water, of which the native Japanese is mizu, perhaps more familiar to those of us who know just a little of the Japanese language...)

.... suddenly this phrase came to mind as part of a long train of thought which was partly inspired by Francis Takahashi's column on Hitori Geiko, training by oneself. He mentioned taking walks is also keiko, so in my latest blog entry I mentioned a friend who has a back injury and no longer attends a dojo but takes long walks by the shore, and then Carina sent a beautiful photo of a beach in Gran Canaria. I suppose I could say that the ideas and communication roll along, like the waves ... a wonder of nature on the one hand, and a wonder of human nature on the other....

But back to the movie. Melina Mercouri's character was revising the Greek tragedies because she preferred a happy ending. "And They All Went to the Seashore"

Many of us prefer stories with a happy ending! And if our work is demanding, the water, the sun, the sand, the salt air and maybe some trees for shade .... are very restorative, curative ....

Where to go on vacation used to be a popular topic and often symbolized husband and wife having different opinions and tastes and somehow working out compromises. We have both fairly nearby, although my thirty year old car is no longer on the road (well if I can train regularly again, likewise maybe it will run again, there's always hope for bodies and mechanical creations)

We have the Mianus Gorge (named for a famous Native American leader who dealt peaceably with the early settlers here) which is part of the Nature Conservancy, and we have the shore. So in a sense we have both, so I was thinking of calling them "jinja" informally. If this were Japan, I'm sure they would both be considered Shinto shrines. The Gorge goes through rocky narrows, has peaceful pond like areas, probably with plenty of frogs some seasons, a rock quarry, a hemlock forest on one of the high points, nearby white pines with a bed of needles underneath so soft you can take a nap, classic New England stone walls... and then leads down to a reservoir.

The seashore is not directly on the ocean, it is on Long Island Sound, so waves are not as strong. You can practice in the water, but more on that next time. My husband was driving a van of teenagers with parents to a concert as part of his limo job and got back late. Now he's hungry! Have a nice day, everyone.

Thanks so much for your encouragement always, Carina and Francis! I mentioned about going to photograph the Gorge and the shore to my husband last night, he said sure, he would like to. But helping him arrange it in his busy schedule will be ....Futari Geiko! (training for two people)

In one sense, there is an element of "hitori geigko" in just about every activity we undertake. Is it not true that a primary purpose of keiko is to polish, hone and improve the self, irrespective of the means. Thank you Daian and Carina for your gentle yet powerfully original interpretations of fundamental Aiki principles. I truly appreciate your gifts of sharing.

Thank you Diana for sharing that beautiful landscape, maybe you could take some photos and put them in the gallery. Yes, Francis wrote about Hitori Geiko and even it is difficult to do aikido techniques without a partner, most of the things we do during the day are "solo training" for us who do aikido outside the dojo too And much more if meanwhile I'm walking along the shore I'm thinking of my last aikido class